The rankings take into account matches played over the past eight years and the rankings are based on the following factors: winning, drawing and losing; number of goals; home or away match; relative importance of the match; strength of the opponent; and regional strength.

Regarding match importance, a win in a World Cup finals match earns twice the amount of points of a friendly match.

To ensure teams playing more international matches are not favoured over those playing fewer, only a limited number of games are taken into consideration.

This means that the score calculated for the team's best seven matches in a year accounts for half its ranking points.

Greater importance is given to matches played in the past year (some 1,041 for 2000), but results from the previous seven years get weightings that decline progressively further back.

Critics contend that the Fifa rankings place too much emphasis on past results.

They point to France, who won the European Championship and 11 out of 16 matches in 2000, being ranked behind Brazil, who slumped to their first ever World Cup qualifying defeats this year.

The perceived flaws in the Fifa system has lead to the creation of a number of alternative rankings from football statisticians.